For too long, Mableton renters have been forced to live in conditions unworthy of any human being: apartments swarming with rats, cockroaches, and raccoons, walls and ceilings blackened with toxic mold, leaky pipes flooding floors, and electricity so unsafe it could spark a fire at any moment. On Sept. 10, 2025, the Mableton City Council finally acted, passing the Safe and Healthy Housing Ordinance, a sweeping law that defines what it truly means for a home to be “fit for human habitation” and gives the city the power to enforce it.
For many residents and members of the Mableton community, the vote was long overdue. “We talk about how people of color, we want better for our society — that starts with where they live,” renter Bahiyah Graham told the council before the vote. Graham, who is raising an autistic child, described the torment of living with mold, rats, roaches, and even raccoons inside her rental unit. “We have children, one is my child — autistic, living in mold, rats, roaches, the list can go on and on,” she said. “Everybody wants to say, ‘Why haven’t y’all moved?’ You guys know darn well the cost of living is beyond a tragedy.”
Closing a Dangerous Loophole in State Law
Georgia lawmakers passed the Safe at Home Act of 2024, which requires landlords to provide habitable housing. But because the law never spelled out what “habitable” means, many tenants were left unprotected by the people who were supposed to protect them, even after calling code enforcement, filing complaints, or dragging their landlords into small claims court…